14 of the Best Marketing Ideas for Travel Agencies in 2026

Travellers in 2026 are more informed, more fragmented and harder to reach than ever before. They’re discovering destinations on TikTok, validating choices through AI tools, and booking through whichever channel builds the most trust. For travel agencies, that means the marketing playbook from even two or three years ago needs a serious update.

According to Expedia’s Unpack ’26 report – based on first-party data and insights from 24,000 global travellers – demand is being shaped by experiences, not just destinations. From fan-driven sports travel to “salvaged stays” in converted heritage buildings, today’s customers are looking for something that feels personal and meaningful. Meanwhile, ABTA’s Travel Trends for 2026 highlights that 25–34 year olds are the driving force behind travel spending, with 84% planning to travel abroad and nearly half intending to spend more this year.

For travel agencies, this shift calls for a marketing approach that goes well beyond a nice Instagram grid. In this article, we share 15 of the best marketing ideas for travel agencies to help you reach the right customers, build trust and stand out in an increasingly competitive market.

1. Create Destination Guides

Content marketing remains one of the most effective approaches to reach a wider audience and establishing a brand image in the travel industry. Travel agencies can attract potential customers to specific tours and packages by creating destination guides that include subtle calls to action to book these holidays and offer detailed advice about where to go and what to see.

This kind of content can take the form of blog posts or could be a downloadable PDF that users have to enter their email address to access. To make the content even more appealing, be sure to offer recommendations and insight tailored to your target audience, and then advertise it with this unique value highlighted. We’ve written a detailed guide on how to build a travel content strategy if you want to go deeper on this.

If your travel agency has social media accounts on Instagram or YouTube then you could also create video destination guides that will maximise engagement by sharing visuals of the location you are targeting. This is one of the best marketing ideas for travel agencies with a younger target audience, as many of these customers turn to social media first when it comes to seeking out holiday recommendations.

2. Utilise Video in Email Marketing

Email is a marketing channel that continues to grow. It’s an approach that can be an incredibly successful way of retaining customers, converting leads and building a strong relationship with your target audience, and the best news is that it can be relatively simple to set up.

To take your email marketing campaign a step further, one of the best ways to improve performance is to include videos in them. This could be a short clip of anything from travel tips to a customer vlog or interview, helping to catch the reader’s attention and encourage them to engage with the content. Video in emails has been consistently shown to boost click-through rates significantly, driving more traffic to your website and hopefully more conversions.

If you have the time and resources then one of the most valuable tips for travel agents is to enhance your email marketing campaigns with automated responses and personalised pathways that ensure your subscribers receive more of the kind of content they’re interested in. Using software like GetResponse gives you the tools to create these automated series easily, helping to improve engagement and deliver more relevant content.

3. Invest in Short-Form Video

Short-form video on platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts has become one of the primary discovery channels for travel in 2026. It’s no longer just for younger demographics either – travellers in their 30s and 40s are increasingly using these platforms for trip inspiration.

The key is specificity. A 30-second video titled “Why Croatia in September beats July” will outperform a generic “Top 10 Travel Tips” every time. Think destination deep-dives, honest itinerary walkthroughs, packing guides for niche trips (like a walking holiday in the Dolomites), and behind-the-scenes glimpses of how you put travel packages together.

The beauty of short-form video is that it fills the top of the funnel that travel SEO alone can’t reach – it captures travellers who aren’t yet searching but are open to being inspired. And with AI-powered editing tools now making production far more accessible, there’s really no excuse not to be creating this kind of content in 2026.

4. Get Involved with Podcasts

Podcasting is a leading format in the world of content marketing, with plenty of brands starting their own shows or featuring on established series as guests as a way to increase visibility and establish themselves in the travel industry. Whether you decide to take the plunge and launch a podcast for your agency, or reach out to existing shows and ask to be invited on, you can share knowledge, stories and insight into the world of travel from your perspective as a travel agent and grow your customer base by getting your brand name out there.

Starring as a guest on a popular travel podcast is also an excellent way to get links back to your agency website, as well as getting shared across various social media platforms to new groups of followers. Make a list of existing travel podcasts with an audience that will be interested in your travel agency, and reach out to them asking about their guest application process.

5. Feature Partnership Guests Posts

If your agency doesn’t already have a blog as part of your website then you need to set one up if you’re looking for an effective method of sharing content. If you already have a travel blog, a great way to continue developing the content here is to feature guest posts as part of partnerships.

Partnerships can be one of the most fruitful marketing ideas to implement for your agency, as long as you choose another business with similar goals and expectations. As a travel agency, you’ll already work with a range of different businesses involved in the travel industry, which gives you a great existing list of potential partners to approach for guest content.

Most approaches involve you each creating a piece of content for each other’s website or social media channels and then sharing this as a way of building links, reaching a new audience and diversifying your existing blog offering. You don’t necessarily need a long-term partnership to reap the benefits of guest posting though — many publications take submissions from professionals with a credible reputation.

6. Respond to Current Trends

As a general rule when it comes to travel agency marketing, the majority of the content that you share should be evergreen. This means that it is relevant no matter what time a potential customer is reading it, ensuring that the piece has as long a shelf life as possible and can continue to bring in new leads and visitors to your website.

However, it can be very beneficial to occasionally create or share content that is responding to a certain trend in your area of the industry, such as a sudden surge in popularity of a destination or a new kind of holiday experience that is getting a lot of media attention. There are plenty of trend reports for 2026 that offer valuable insight into which types of travel are predicted to be the most popular this year, including ones from Expedia (Unpack ’26), Condé Nast Traveller and ABTA. We also shared our own marketing predictions for 2026 that are worth a read.

Whether you produce a blog post exploring the topic, create a video sharing your insight or just add your opinion to conversations happening on social media, it can occasionally be a good way to gain more attention, expand your customer base and better establish your agency amongst competitors. Just be sure you include other ideas for marketing in your content strategy as well, so you’re not just reliant on trend pieces.

7. Optimise for AI & Search (GEO)

This is new territory for most travel agencies, but it’s one of the most important marketing shifts happening right now. Travellers are increasingly using AI tools like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews and Perplexity to research and plan trips. If your agency doesn’t show up in those answers, you’re invisible at a critical stage of the customer journey.

The good news is that the foundations of getting found by AI tools are largely the same as good SEO – well-structured, helpful content that directly answers the questions your customers are asking. If you’re ranking well in Google, you’re already in a strong position to get referenced by LLMs too.

But there’s more to it than just on-page content. Getting mentioned on other relevant websites – through PR, partnerships and guest content – plays a significant role in how AI tools decide who to reference. And it’s not just the big-name publications that matter; niche travel blogs and industry sites can be just as influential. We’ve written more about this in our guide to GEO and AI optimisation.

8. Start a Referral Program

When it comes to travel marketing goals, attracting and converting new customers is often only part of the story. Retaining existing customers and building up brand loyalty is a big part of ensuring long-term success, and offering a referral plan or incentivising recommendations is a great way to do this AND gain new customers.

Depending on the kind of travel experiences your agency offers, the specifics of the referral scheme you set up will vary. A classic example is encouraging existing customers to recommend your agency to their friends and family with a unique code, and if the new customer books a trip then both parties receive a discount on their next holiday.

Whilst not exactly the same, customer loyalty programs where repeat bookings are rewarded with discounts is a similar approach that is great for building up a dedicated group of long-term customers. Many of the best travel agencies run similar schemes that help to create a greater sense of community and loyalty amongst customers.

9. Encourage User-Generated Content

If you find yourself struggling for content to post on social media in particular, one effective marketing idea for travel agents is to encourage your followers and customers to create and share content. This could focus on either the trips they take through your agency or in response to a prompt you have shared on your profile.

User-generated content (UGC) remains one of the most powerful trust signals in travel marketing. When potential customers see real people sharing genuine experiences, it carries far more weight than polished brand content. The best examples of UGC can be shared or reposted from your account, giving you more content variety and providing a way to connect with your followers.

If generally encouraging followers to share content through things like hashtags doesn’t yield much engagement, an effective approach could be to set up a competition requiring entrants to share content related to your agency offering on their personal profiles. The best entries can be reposted on your agency’s account, which not only gives you more content to share but means that more social media users will see you tagged in entrants’ submissions and potentially start following you as well.

10. Use AI Tools to Level Up Your Marketing

Whether you’re a solo travel agent or a small team, AI tools can genuinely transform what you’re able to produce. And we’re not talking about churning out generic AI-written blog posts – that’s the fast track to looking like everyone else.

Used well, AI can help you draft and refine email campaigns, create social media content calendars, analyse competitor strategies, repurpose a single piece of content across multiple formats, and even help with tasks like writing meta descriptions or building FAQ sections for your website.

The agencies that will thrive in 2026 are the ones treating AI as a tool to enhance their expertise and increase their output – not replace the human knowledge and personality that makes them different. If you want to learn specific, practical ways to apply AI in your travel business, our Travel AI Compass course covers exactly that.

11. Personalise Marketing Material

Numerous studies have shown that customers who receive marketing content that is personalised to their specific interests are much more likely to feel a strong affinity with the brand and engage with this content instead of just ignoring it.

Instead of sharing generic content that appeals to your customer base more generally, it can be worth taking the time to create more focused campaigns that may be relevant to a smaller proportion of your audience, but which respond to their interests or pain points much more effectively.

This is a travel agency marketing idea that works particularly well through email marketing, where you can ask your mailing list subscribers to share their specific travel interests and desires when they give you their email addresses. You can then ensure that the email content they receive is tailored to these interests, increasing the likelihood of engagement and creating a stronger sense of affinity. With AI tools now making segmentation and personalisation far easier to implement, there’s never been a better time to get this right.

12. Champion Sustainability

Sustainability continues to be a key factor in travellers’ booking decisions, and the conversation has matured well beyond simple greenwashing. Expedia’s Unpack ’26 report introduced a “Smart Travel Health Check” – a framework inspired by the World Travel & Tourism Council – that highlights destinations managing tourism responsibly. This kind of thinking is increasingly what customers expect from the brands they book with.

If you want your marketing content to stand out, championing sustainability is something that your travel agency can’t afford to ignore. Make sure that any trips or offers that feature elements of sustainable travel are at the front of your advertising and consider how you can adapt your offerings to create more opportunities for sustainable travel.

Sustainability isn’t just about the trips you offer your customers though; it’s also about your environmental impact as an agency. Customers are more inclined to book holidays with companies that embody sustainability as a value and make an active effort to minimise their environmental impact, so you should also ensure you’re advertising this as part of your branding, alongside sustainable trips.

13. Invest in PR Campaigns

A strong PR campaign can do more for your travel agency than just generate a bit of buzz — it can build the kind of third-party credibility that feeds into everything from SEO rankings to how often AI tools reference your brand.

Whether it’s a data-led piece that gets picked up by travel journalists, a creative “dream job” competition that generates social shares, or a new offering tied to a cultural moment (like a destination surge driven by a hit TV show), PR is one of the most effective ways to get your agency mentioned on high-authority websites.

And those mentions matter more than ever. As we touched on in the GEO section, getting referenced across a range of reputable sites — from major publications to niche travel blogs — is increasingly how both search engines and AI tools decide who to surface. We’ve pulled together a detailed breakdown of the best types of PR campaigns for travel companies if you want some inspiration.

14. Incentivise Reviews

Finally, one of the best travel agency marketing techniques doesn’t actually involve creating any content at all. If customers are leaving positive reviews of the experiences they have with you, this will encourage others to reach out and help to build an outstanding reputation.

Ideally, your customers will be singing your praises without any motivation, but this isn’t a particularly reliable method of advertising your agency. You can increase the likelihood of this by incentivising leaving positive reviews, such as entering customers into a prize draw or offering a discount when they leave a review after they have returned from their holiday.

In 2026, reviews also play a growing role in how AI tools evaluate and recommend businesses. The more genuine, detailed reviews your agency has across platforms like Google and Trustpilot, the stronger your chances of being surfaced when potential customers ask an AI tool for travel agency recommendations.

Summary

A comprehensive travel marketing strategy in 2026 is made up of a variety of different approaches ensuring that you’re targeting your audience from multiple angles and maximising your chances of success. The landscape has shifted significantly – AI, short-form video and integrated multi-channel marketing are no longer optional extras, they’re essential parts of the mix.

The above travel marketing ideas will all help your travel agency to streamline its marketing efforts and ensure that you’re standing out from others in your sector of the industry, generating more business and growing the number of potential customers who engage with your content.

If you’re a travel agency looking for ways to boost your marketing strategy in 2026, or want to grow the number of customers that find your agency this year, north9 can help. Get in touch to find out more about our marketing services and receive a free proposal for how we could improve your agency’s performance.

About The Author...

Chloe Robinson

SEO | GEO | PPC

Chloe’s role in the team is to create and implement SEO & PPC strategies to boost websites to the top of Google’s search results. Vancouver is her top travel destination, being the perfect blend of city and mountains.